University of Wisconsin students are banding together to evict Starbucks from campus. Specifically, students want the university to end the licensing contract that allows Starbucks to have a location inside of Smith Residence Hall, which opened in 2020.
UW is one of 25 universities whose students want to cancel their contracts with Starbucks as a result of the corporations anti-union practices, according to The Cap Times. The majority of workers at the Smith location are UW students, making this issue especially personal. The students want to ensure companies who do not respect labor laws are punished for such activities.
According to a report published by the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education and Labor Pensions, the $113 billion corporation is the most aggressive union-busting company in America.
Former CEO, billionaire and founder of Starbucks Howard Schultz is the man behind this anti-union stance according to the Senate Committee — and Starbucks’ policies are a direct reflection of his opinions on unions as a whole.
Schultz is open with the fact he believes that unions are bad for companies. In 2022 he stated he believed unions were threatening to the company and Starbucks would not embrace unionization amidst many other statements, according to the Committee’s report. But even with these public statements, Schultz denied repeatedly in a Senate hearing that Starbucks broke any laws in resisting union organizers.
But Schultz’s statements were found to be false by the National Labor Relations Board where judges discovered Starbucks broke the law 130 times, across the span of six different states since the fall of 2021, according to the Senate Committee’s report. The corporation fired or forced out 12 pro-union workers, fired two other workers because of NLRB investigations and the NLRB is currently taking Starbucks to trial in 70 more cases.
Specific to UW, the Smith Residence Hall Starbucks is on blast, rather than the State Street location. The Smith location is different from others Starbuck stores, as it is directly tied to the university. All workers, full-time and student staff, are employees of UW. This makes the school responsible for all the actions that occur within it.
A statement from UW cited in an article by WKOW News says University Housing is directly in charge of the staffing at Smith Starbucks and they do their best to offer a flexible schedule, fair wages and a positive work place.
Wages start at $15 per hour for students according to the WKOW News article, well above the minimum wage in the state of Wisconsin of $7.25 per hour. This is a positive for the Smith location, as they appear to want their employees to be treated properly.
Adding on to the wages, the hours Smith employees’ hours are also manageable, WKOW reported. The spokesperson continued to state most UW students work an average of seven to 10 hours a week and are discouraged to work more than 20 hours in a single week.
With all of the positives UW is trying to provide their Starbucks employees, it is a completely separate issue to the Starbucks company as a whole. If the Smith Residence Hall store continues to provide flexibility and proper compensation for their workers, the location should stay.
But, the most important aspect of this location is that it provides many students with a job. College and the cost of tuition is extremely pricy, with the store mainly employing student workers, it provides a great opportunity to make a salary, especially for those who are living in Smith Residence Hall as they are able to live and work within the same building.
The issue of union busting within the Starbucks multibillion dollar chain is a complex issue. There are many layers — workers, investors and customers have to continue to think about.
But for UW students the issue at the forefront is the Smith location is tied directly to UW as an institution. If the university and store continue to place workers overall wellbeing in their direct path for the rest of their ten year contract, the store should stay.
Jemma Lipman ([email protected]) is a freshman studying journalism.
